


Chicken.

by Basingstoke



Category: Smallville
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-02-02
Updated: 2002-02-02
Packaged: 2017-10-03 14:31:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Basingstoke/pseuds/Basingstoke





	Chicken.

His foot on the gas pedal of his twentieth birthday present. His father beside him, one elbow propped casually on the window, his hair flying wildly in the wind, his face betraying nothing as Lex drove toward the wall.

Not a flicker, not an iota of fear. He didn't move a muscle.

Lex jerked the wheel and hit the brakes, skidding to a stop a meter from the brick wall. He shifted into park, listening to the tick of the engine and the offended squawk of the birds.

"I suppose you think you've proved something," his father said.

"Only that you're a fool," Lex said. "You're stronger than me. You could have yanked the wheel away at any time."

"I knew you didn't have the balls to crash this car."

Lex grinned and turned away. "Maybe not with me in it. But slipping cyanide into your brandy...that I could do at no harm to myself."

"Lex."

"Yes, Dad?"

"Never reveal your plans--or your weaknesses." And then his father's hands were shoving him back against the car door and his father's thumbs were digging into his throat--not his windpipe, but his jugular, blocking the flow of blood and making his eyes and ears fill with black noise--

Horse. His mother, impossibly tall, jabbing at his father with her riding crop. Lex clutched his throat.

"--strangling our son, you old fool... Lex, get out, it's nearly time for dinner." She urged her favorite gelding away from the car, giving Lex room. He opened the door and stumbled out. His mother gave him a hand up behind her.

She kneed the gelding into a soft canter. "Honestly, Lex."

"I think he's going to kill me, Mom." Giddy to think it. Giddier to realize it was true.

"Mm. He might try. But he'll never succeed as long as I'm here." She patted his thigh. Lex thought about her heart--she denied the sickness, but it was there all the same. "And when I'm dead, swallow your pride and learn to hide your plans."

"Mm."

"Here, a lesson in humility." She stopped the gelding suddenly and shoved him sideways, toppling him from the horse. "This one's free. Laugh it off."

Lex landed on his shoulder and rolled. "Mother!"

"Laugh it off, boy." She pointed her riding crop at him. With the sun behind her copper-penny hair, she looked like a statue of Athena set on fire.

He glared up at her. His shoulder *hurt* and she had done it on *purpose* and his father had tried to *kill* him and this was *not funny*--

The horse snorted and tossed his head. Lex's mother raised an eyebrow.

\--and he had thirty million dollars in the bank and he was still lying in the middle of a field being stained by grass and laughed at by a horse. Lex covered his eyes and rocked his head back and forth until he started to laugh.

"There you go." His mother took his hand and pulled him up. She smiled. "Much better."

"God, Mom. Between you and Dad I won't see twenty-one."

"I fully expect you to turn twenty-one, young man, even if I don't see you do it. Here." She took a bag from her pocket and shoved it into his hand. "Happy birthday." She mounted the horse again as Lex opened the black velvet bag.

Inside was a watch--made from a franc? Featuring Napoleon? Lex slipped it on. "Thank you, Mom."

She gave him a hand up again. "Ask me what it means after dinner. Now, we've got to beat your father back to the house."

"Why?" He swung up.

"We just do. Hyah!" She urged the horse into full gallop as Lex hung on behind her.


End file.
